e Jews proceed to cast him out of the city, with a view toward tossing him down the mountain (Luke 4:29).
In other words, by Luke's account, Jesus began his ministry as an outcast from his own hometown. He experienced being alien in one's own land, and he adapted that understanding to his mission. There are many examples of Jesus' embracing outcasts in Luke, and they carry the implication that the outcasts should be embraced by the mainstream. The cure of the leper at Luke 5:12 is important in that regard; according to Jewish tradition (Lev. 13:2, 46), a leper was to be declared unclean by the priest and obliged to "dwell alone." Thus Jesus' statement that the former leper should show himself to the priest was an injunction to be readmitted into society.
Also in Luke (7:36-50) is the story of the sinning woman, doubtless a prostitute, who enters Simon the Pharisee's house where Jesus is dining and washes his feet with her tears. Simon thinks less of Jesus as a prophet because surely he "would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner" (Luke 7:39). First Jesus points out that his host did not anoint or wash his guest but that this woman did, which implies that as the host Simon treated his guest less like a guest than an outcast. But the outcast woman has done so. What is important about the woman's action is contained in the episode that just precedes dinner at Simon's house. In that episode, Jesus engages in a series of healing miracles with the infirm, who have been sent by John the Baptist to him. Whereas many of the people marvel at the event, the Pharisees in particular reject the idea that the hea
...